[WinPartners] Office 2007 Support Announcement

[Alex Kozlov]

Good Afternoon,

On January 30, 2007, Microsoft released Microsoft Office 2007 to consumers
Worldwide. IS&T, in collaboration with IT colleagues across campus, worked
together to test the core components of Office 2007 (i.e., Word, Excel,
PowerPoint and Outlook).  Based on our test results and findings, IS&T
recommends that you use a cautionary approach when deciding to upgrade to
Office 2007 (including Outlook 2007 which is part of the Office 2007 suite).
IS&T will continue to provide support for Office 2003 including Outlook 2003
and recommends that you wait to install Office 2007 on production machines
until your Department, Lab or Center or other IT provider are ready to
support you. 

There are several major issues which you should take into consideration:

- A major user interface change has an associated learning curve
- The default file formats for Office 2007 are not compatible with previous
versions of Office, therefore, IS&T recommends users change the default
"save as" file format to the 97-2003 format.
- Current versions of Oracle Connector (OCFO) are not compatible with
Outlook 2007.  IS&T is working with Oracle to obtain an updated version of
OCFO and will inform the community when one is available.
- Outlook 2007 cannot coexist with previous versions of Outlook on the same
computer. The only exception to this is Outlook Express (Windows XP) or
Windows Mail (Vista). 

For a full list of known issues, notable features, and system requirements
please visit the Office 2007 at MIT page: 

      http://itinfo.mit.edu/product.php?vid=730

Fast Facts about Office 2007 page:

      http://web.mit.edu/ist/products/office/2007/fastfacts.pdf

How to obtain Office 2007:
---------------------------
Office 2007 is available through the Microsoft Campus Agreement at MIT and
Office media (CD/DVD's) will be distributed to all Office liaisons once we
have received it from Microsoft.  To see if your Department, Lab or Center
is currently enrolled, please see the Office software liaison list:

      http://web.mit.edu/ist/services/software/msca-officeliaisons.html

For Departments, Labs and Centers who are not covered by this agreement and
would like additional information, please send email to: liaison-opt at mit.edu
. They can purchase Office 2007 directly from GovConnection through the MIT
Select Agreement.

Additional options for obtaining Office 2007 are included in the
documentation.
 
Where to get help:
---------------------
Documentation for using Office 2007 is available at:
	http://itinfo.mit.edu/product.php?vid=730 

Documentation for using Outlook 2007 is available at:
	http://itinfo.mit.edu/product.php?vid=734

If you need assistance with installing or using Office 2007, please contact
the Computing Help Desk at computing-help at mit.edu or (617)-253-1101.

Please contact office-release at mit.edu with any questions or comments.


Alexander Kozlov 
Windows Platform Coordinator
Software Release Team
Information Services & Technology
MIT
W92-148, Cambridge, MA 02139
 
Tel  (617) 253-5103
Fax (617) 258-8736